General Information

POWER creates a North Sea competence network for offshore wind energy

The POWER project unites North Sea regions with an interest in supporting and realising the economic and technological potentials of offshore wind energy. The project assesses environmental and planning as well as acceptance issues of offshore wind farms, supports the development of a reliable supply chain for the sector, and elaborates skills development measures. 37 organisations take part, with representatives from Germany, the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium. Transnational co-operation between these regions is creating a North Sea competence network for offshore wind energy.

Wind Energy

Wind energy, especially offshore has an enormus opotential to contribute substantially to European and global climate protection. The coastal regions around the North Sea are already confronted with these challenges, some of them are responding with comprehensive future oriented-strategies, combining innovative small and medium sized enterprises with scientific facilities and open-minded public administrations, forming together alliances to push their respective regions towards offshore competence regions. The central aim of POWER is to unify these regions, to learn from each other, to set up common strategies overcoming economic changes, to respond to new educational needs and to give thereby a positive impetus to a continuing sustainable development in the North Sea Region.

Partner Regions

In all the partner regions of the POWER-project in Germany, United Kingdom, Denmark, Netherlands and Belgium there is considerable offshore wind energy potential: the positive geographical factor of being located nearby the already existing or planned offshore wind farms, the existence of small and medium enterprises specialised and/or concentrating on wind energy and/or offshore oil and gas developments, the disposal of educational institutions which have to adapt to the new needs, the required human resources (jobs, income) living in these areas, (former important) ports which could be used as offshore wind energy hubs.

On the other hand these areas are confronted with specific interest groups (e.g. fishermen, tourist organisations) which often oppose offshore wind energy and have to tackle other obstacles (e.g. the trend towards supra-national financing and a threat of absorption of the SMEs, uncoordinated planning and grid-connections in the coastal regions) seen from a transnational perspective.

Transnational co-operation

POWER deals solely with offshore wind energy. It is by its nature a transnational issue. Because most of the wind energy farms will be erected within the Exclusive Economic Zones, the planning, erection, maintenance and the final removal at the end of the life cycle have to be tackled in a transnational perspective.

The offshore wind energy technologies and the spatial, economic and educational strategies dealing with offshore wind energy are still in the early stages of development, thus there is a huge demand and need for cooperation.

Economic Development

Most of the regions involved in the POWER project suffer from high unemployment and economic decline, due to their often relatively peripheral location, the collapse in fish stocks and the decline in the traditional offshore industries. Several of them being EU Objective 2 areas (Bremerhaven, Lowestoft/Great Yarmouth, North East England, Husum, Esbjerg). Offshore wind energy provides a unique opportunity to regenerate the economies of these coastal communities.

The project partners have identified that offshore wind energy could be an innovative motor for their regional and local development, creating jobs and income for their regions and cities. Therefore transnational co-operation through exchange of their specific experiences, lessons learned from other offshore wind energy projects, best and good practice transfer, common transnational activities and real projects with tangible outputs in the fields of planning, economic support / supply chain and skills development as well as dissemination will be crucial for the further development of the partner regions and for the North Sea Region as a whole.

Climate Protection

Wind energy plays an important role in the context of climate protection and the need for a comprehensive change in energy production. In several countries around the North Sea Region (NSR) wind turbines already account for a considerable proportion of electricity supplies. However, onshore wind turbines can be difficult to reconcile with the many existing land interests and this, combined with new wind energy technology, is paving the way for upcoming large-scale offshore wind farms in the NSR.

Especially offshore wind (located in the 12sm and the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ zones) has an enormous potential to contribute substantially to European and global climate protection. The main aim of POWER is to push the use of offshore wind energy (OWE) power in the participating regions and to enable the public sector to deal with the multiple challenges. The coastal regions around the North Sea are already confronted with these challenges, some of them are responding with comprehensive future oriented-strategies, combining innovative small and medium sized enterprises with scientific facilities and open-minded public administrations, forming together alliances to push their respective regions towards offshore competence regions.

New Job Opportunities

The project partners expect that there will be a significant increase in job opportunities in the coming years, which will also result in a higher demand for qualified labour. This has an indirect impact on the respective hinterlands of the coastal areas and thereby supports the social cohesion by reducing differences in the development of towns and their rural hinterlands.

The use of more offshore wind energy will also generate new markets in other sectors than the direct offshore wind energy sector (e.g. tourism, aquaculture). These developing markets give the concerned small and medium enterprises and their labour new fields of activities and new job opportunities. This helps to strengthen the economic and social development of the offshore competence regions.

Sustainability

Offshore wind energy provides the opportunity of substantial benefits in all fields of sustainability:

• Offshore wind farms will have substantial environmental benefits, by providing a low carbon alternative of electricity generation to hydrocarbons. This will reduce carbon outputs, climate change and sea level rise; therefore has a positive global impact.
• Electricity generation from wind can ensure a long term sustainable supply of energy by substantially reducing the dependence of the EU on energy imports, which will further increase with the decline of the outputs of oil and gas from the North Sea.The offshore wind energy sector provides a unique opportunity to regenerate the economies of a large number of coastal communities around the North Sea, which have large problems.